Trump is stomping on European views of immigration to score political points with his base at home

British Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband, Philip May, greeting President Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, at Blenheim Palace on Thursday in Woodstock, England. Geoff Pugh - WPA Pool/Getty Images

President Donald Trump gave a bombshell interview, published shortly after he arrived in the UK, in which he bashed Prime Minister Theresa May and immigration.

Trumpimmigration talk is often unpopular in Europe, but that isn't his intended audience. Instead, he's focused on his political base, which he bragged about being very popular with.

President Donald Trump's tour of Europe had already publicly produced some fireworks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but by the time he landed in London on Thursday he'd already dropped a bombshell interview on UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

"I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it's never going to be what it was, and I don't mean that in a positive way," Trump said.

"I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad," said Trump, who has previously attacked Merkel's policy of allowing a million or so people to resettle in Germany as refugees in recent years.

"I think you are losing your culture," he said. "Look around. You go through certain areas that didn't exist 10 or 15 years ago."

Trump's anti-immigration comments by now are familiar to Americans. Many Europeans, feeling stressed by the high levels of immigration their countries have experienced in recent years, no doubt agree with him, but UK politicians generally have a more moderate outlook and were taken aback by the comments.

Trump opposes resettling any Syrian refugees in the US and has restricted travel to the US from seven majority-Muslim countries. Trump has also expressed support for immigration from countries like Norway, whose population is mostly white, while disparaging countries in Africa.

In massive protests across London, people condemned Trump as racist and xenophobic. "Theresa May should condemn Trump for this ugly dog-whistle politics," Dawn Butler, a Labour MP, said, referring to the strategy of using veiled wording designed to appeal to certain supporters but be overlooked by others.

In Europe, especially in Germany and the UK, where the memory of World War II and the mass destruction caused by xenophobic ideas remains close at hand, Trump's immigration rhetoric is often unpalatable for mainstream politicians. But he's not talking to them.